The present disclosure relates generally to the field of weather display systems. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a weather display system having a vertical weather profile display.
Weather display systems are often used to alert operators of vehicles, such as aircraft pilots, of weather hazards in the area near the vehicle. Conventional weather display systems are configured to display images of weather in two dimensions. A horizontal plan view provides an overview of weather patterns near an aircraft mapped onto a horizontal plane. Such a horizontal plan view does not provide the pilot with information about how displayed weather cells vary with altitude (e.g., the differences in severity at different altitudes). A vertical view can provide a vertical weather profile which illustrates a slice of one or more weather cells along a plane for a particular set of ranges and altitudes.
Avionic weather radar systems have displayed weather images along with terrain information on a vertical situational display. These systems display the weather image limited to a range of approximately 100 nautical miles (NM). The 100 nautical mile range limitation is imposed by the resolution of onboard weather radar systems. However, current vertical situational displays are capable of displaying terrain and flight plan information to a range of approximately 1000 nautical miles. When ranges greater than 100 nautical miles are selected on the display, the vertical weather profile on the vertical situational display is cut off using a vertical line and the rest of the weather is blanked or grayed out. This solution does not provide an indication of weather beyond the 100 nautical mile range.
Thus, there is a need for a weather radar system that can provide a vertical situational display including weather images at ranges greater than 100 nautical miles. Further, there is a need for a weather radar system capable of utilizing data associated with ranges greater than 100 nautical miles and displaying images of weather data at such ranges in a vertical view. Further still, there is a need for a long range vertical weather situational display. There is also a need for a weather information display that provides more information than a conventional display with a horizontal profile and a vertical profile. There is also a need for a weather display system configured to display weather information generated based on radar returns from an onboard weather radar system and weather data from an external source.